Chapter 27
The Sad Living Room
Elowen
I recognize his voice before I see his face.
Anton.
My stomach drops so fast it feels like I'm falling.
Hugging my notebook tight to my chest, I shift so I’m behind Cliff and try to think. What did he say our story was again?
I'm not an omega.
The guards overreacted.
Was that it?
Fuck. Why won't my brain work?
Anton steps out of the kitchen, dressed casually, dark jeans and a plain shirt, like he just happened to be in the neighborhood. He looks around the room with the unhurried ease of a man who's been waiting for a while.
Has he been hiding in the apartment this whole time? Or was he waiting in the parking lot? Has he been here for days?
I hold my breath as his eyes move over the pack one by one before settling on me.
"Elowen." He says my name like a period at the end of a sentence.
"Hey, Anton." I try to keep my voice even and fail miserably.
Then without a word, the whole pack shifts. Raff steps forward and to the left, positioning himself beside Cliff. Perrin slides to Cliff's right, and suddenly there's a wall of bodies between me and Anton.
Hell, even Adam shifts closer, his arm nearly brushing mine. If I wasn't so terrified, I'd be touched.
"Is there a reason you let yourself into Elowen’s apartment?" Raff asks.
"I'm here to check on my employee." Anton's voice has an edge to it, like he walked in here ready for a fight. Then his dark eyes find the gap between Cliff and Raff's shoulders where he can barely see me. "Are you okay, Pérez?"
I blink.
That's not the question I was expecting.
"Yeah. I'm fine," I say.
"You sure?" His eyes move over what little of me he can see. "Nobody hurt you?"
"No.” I shake my head. “Nobody hurt me."
He's quiet for a moment. Then something in his expression shifts, and he almost looks…annoyed? "Yeah," he says, more to himself than anyone. "I figured."
I blink, not sure what’s happening anymore.
“You know,” he continues, and his expression completely changes. It looks incredibly pissed. "At first, I thought that Cliff had snatched you for ransom." His eyes cut briefly to my mate, and I feel Cliff’s rage through our bond.
"Pharmacists who know how to keep their mouths shut are hard to find,” Anton says.
“I thought maybe he figured you were valuable.
" He pauses, his jaw working as he and Cliff glare at one another.
"But then I started thinking about what actually happened. And the way these guys were acting,” he looks at Raff and Perrin, before settling back on me, “and the scent rolling off all of you. It was brief, and everything was falling into chaos, but I smelled it, Pérez.” His eyes narrow. “You were soaked in omega pheromones.”
Every muscle in my body locks, his words hitting me like a stone dropped in still water.
"She's a fucking doctor." Raff throws a look at Anton, making it clear he thinks this line of questioning is a waste of oxygen. "All the patients are omegas. Of course she's going to pick up pheromones in a camp full of omegas. It's not exactly shocking that she'd smell like them."
I press my lips together hard, fighting back the reflex to tell him I don’t actually interact with the patients at the market. I did in the real world, but the Morder is very different.
"She’s the fucking pharmacist,” Anton snaps. “The pharmacists don't touch the patients,” he snarls. "Plus, she was on the other side of the camp. Away from the omegas. Filling orders for the medical staff." His voice drops as he growls, "So try again."
The room smells like a fight that hasn't started yet. Sharp. Almost acidic. And I press myself closer to Adam's side. Thankfully, he doesn’t move away.
“How about you get to the fucking point?” Cliff growls in a low, hushed voice, making the hair along the back of my neck rise. “Are you accusing us of stealing Elowen? Or stealing a random omega? Cuz I’ve got no clue what your problem is anymore.”
Anton's eyes flash with a fury so deep it seems to age him, carving shadows into the lines of his face. But Cliff doesn't flinch. If anything, he leans into it, shoulders squaring and chin lifting.
"Nothing to say?"
Anton's jaw works, his teeth pressing together so hard I can see the muscle jumping beneath his skin.
"You need to get your fucking guards in check, Anton." Cliff's voice drops into that register I didn’t know was possible. Quiet, flat, and somehow more terrifying than a shout. "And leave. My pack. Alone."
Perrin's eyes cut sideways, looking past me, at Adam. It's the briefest flicker—half a second, maybe less—but whatever passes between them lands like an order.
Adam’s warm hand grips my elbow, and he pulls me back, away from the alphas. I stumble toward the door, my feet finally remembering how to work. Perrin is right behind us, and for one bright, dizzy second I think it's all over.
Then a tall slender shape fills the doorway, and we all freeze.
Angelica steps into my apartment like she's been waiting for her cue, and my heart slams into my ribs. She's so tall, razor-sharp, and radiating the kind of authority that fills a room before she does.
My feet move, backing up until my shoulders hit something solid. Perrin. His hand finds my arm immediately, steadying me. I hug my notebook harder, my knuckles going white around the warped cover, as I look Angelica up and down.
The she-alpha is wearing a white linen suit, spikey heels, and her red lips are pressed into a flat, dangerous line.
Her eyes sweep the room like she already knows what she's going to find. Moving slowly, she slides a cell phone into the sleek black purse hanging from her wrist, then she looks at Anton and nods once.
He called her.
Of course, he called her.
Perrin pulls me back another two steps, then he moves in front of me, his shoulders squaring. And I realize with a dim, terrified clarity that the beta is trying to shield me with his body.
Across the room, Raff’s frame jerks, like every instinct he has is pulling him toward us. But he stays put, positioning himself where he can see both Anton and Angelica at the same time.
"Angelica," Cliff says as he angles his body toward the she-alpha. “It’s nice to see you.”
Angelica's sharp blue eyes move lazily around the room before landing on Cliff. "I've been wanting to talk to you," she says. Her voice is warm and precise, carrying the kind of sweetness of someone who is furious and has decided not to show it yet.
"You know where I live," Cliff says simply.
The corner of Angelica's mouth twitches as if she found what Cliff said funny. "I never go to an enemy's house," she says in a cold, flat tone.
Something shifts in the room, and Raff goes very still.
"Are we enemies?" Cliff asks.
Angelica tilts her head slightly. "That depends." Her eyes slide off Cliff and find Raff, and her expression sharpens by a degree. "Why were you running through my market with a goddamn omega thrown over your shoulder?"
I stop breathing, and Adam inches a little closer, the warmth of his body seeping into my side.
My skin prickles everywhere at once, a hot, crawling awareness of every inch of my exposed flesh.
Neck.
Wrists.
Arms.
I pray the drugstore scent-blockers I put on this morning hang on, but that was hours ago and I've been moving and sweating and my heart has been hammering since the second I heard Anton's voice.
Trying not to spiral, I press one hand flat against my thigh and focus hard on keeping my breathing even.
Don't sweat.
Don't react.
Don't even blink.
Adam slips an arm around my shoulder, and holds me tight, like he can feel me unraveling.
“I’m getting really tired of this fucking conversation.” Cliff's voice drops. "There was no goddamn omega.”
“I was carrying Elowen,” Raff says, like it’s obvious. “Your trigger-happy guards almost killed us and practically caused a riot over nothing.”
“Elowen?” Angelica's eyes cut to me, and I have to wonder if this is the first time she’s ever heard my name. “You expect me to believe that a beta smelled like that?”
"I don't expect shit from you," Cliff snaps. He sounds so done right now. “But the fact is that whatever they smelled, wasn’t her.” His brows lift. “Unless you think Raff had an omega stuffed down the front of his pants?”
"Careful, Cliff.” Angelica’s white teeth flash as she speaks. “The fact is, the entire camp scented it. I’ve spent two days questioning every alpha that was there that day, and they all smelled a fresh omega hanging off your man’s shoulder.”
“The alphas standing in front of the stage?” Perrin speaks up, and every head turns toward him. “During the auction? Wasn’t there an omega on stage? It could have been her.”
I see the corner of Raff’s mouth lift, like Perrin won us a major point.
“They’re drugged,” Anton snaps at Perrin, before looking at Angelica. He opens his mouth, but before he can say a word, Cliff speaks up.
“Look.” Cliff spreads his hands, the gesture so unbothered it's almost insulting.
"I don't know what to tell you. I was sitting with my sick girlfriend.” He motions to me.
“One of your guards decided to make it his problem.
Raff grabbed Elowen to get her to safety, and the next thing we knew, everyone was shooting.
" His voice shifts, growing lighter. "You might want to look into better security. "
“And to cause that kind of chaos around omegas?” Raff looks at Angelica. "It’s not safe. I hear omegas are very sensitive.”
Angelica's jaw tightens, then she turns and looks at Anton.
Anton looks back at her and his nostrils flare. "Something is off here," he says quietly as he looks at Cliff. "I don't know what it is yet." His gaze slides to Raff, and something in them sharpens. "But I'm going to figure it out. And when I do—"
"Whenever you're ready," Raff says simply.
The silence that follows is sharp enough to cut glass. I feel like I might scream from the pressure circling around me when a sharp ringing sound cuts through the room.
Angelica’s sharp blue eyes leave Raff as she lifts her purse and pulls out her cell phone.
She glances at the screen and lets out a short, sharp breath through her nose. “Anton.” She slides her phone back into her pocket. “It’s time to go.” She looks at Cliff one last time. "This isn't finished.”
Then she turns and walks out, her heels clacking loudly the second she steps outside.
Anton lingers.
He doesn't say anything else. He simply looks at me. One long, slow, deliberate look that starts at my face and moves over me with an ungodly amount of focus.
It lasts maybe three seconds, but it feels like an eternity.
Then Anton moves.
He cuts a glare at Cliff as he follows Angelica out. His hand grips the edge of the door as he goes, making it swing shut behind him with a sharp bang.
And I fall apart.
My knees go soft and my chest caves in. The breath I've been holding for the last forty minutes comes out in a sob that sounds nothing like me. My hands are shaking so badly my notebook falls, and it hits the floor. Instantly, the rubber band snaps, and papers explode everywhere.
Notes, names, and tiny scraps of paper scatter across the shitty carpet.
"No!" The word tears out of me as my knees hit the floor too.
I scramble, grabbing everything I can with both hands. My vision swims with tears, and my chest heaves. I can't get enough air in and I can't stop crying long enough to breathe properly, and the pages keep slipping through my fingers because my hands won't stop shaking.
“I’m sorry,” I choke out, reaching for every tiny scrap of paper as fast as I can. “I’m so sorry.”
All of this is my fault.
"Hey." Adam is suddenly on the floor beside me. He doesn't say anything else. He just starts picking up little pieces of paper, handing them to me one at a time. His hands are steady where mine aren't.
Someone says something, but I can't hear it.
There's a loud rushing in my ears, drowning out everything except the sound of my own breathing which has gone ragged and wrong.
I reach forward, picking up a small photo, and the room tilts slightly.
I can’t breathe.
Each breath is shallower than the last, and I can feel myself coming apart at the seams.
Three years of holding it together is coming undone on the floor of my own apartment and I can't stop it. The tears keep coming, harder now, ugly and uncontrolled, and I hate the wailing sounds I'm making.
"I've got it, omega" Perrin says, as warm hands wrap around mine, taking the papers out of my grasp. I don’t want to let them go, but everything slips out of my fingers anyway.
Raff murmurs something, and I think I can hear Adam’s worried voice.
Then two hands slide under my arms from behind, and I'm lifted, clean and easy, off the floor.
Cliff.
His arms close around me, and he takes my weight completely, and I let him.
A low, steady purr starts in his chest, so deep I can feel it vibrating against my cheek before I even register the sound.
It moves through his body and into mine everywhere we're touching, and I can feel him pushing something soft and steady through our bond.
It’s the feeling of safe and here and I have you, over and over like a tide coming in.
And my body melts.
Every tight muscle releases all at once, and I push my face into the curve of his neck, breathing him in. Dark chocolate and smoked cedar filling my lungs until there's nothing else left.
"Okay," he whispers, low and soft, against my hair. "It's time to go home."